The Overwatch Youth
by mooseman3
Summary: Overwatch is a peacekeeping organization filled with unique individuals, but in order to be prepared for any future catastrophes it was decided that an training program would be made for the younger generation. Submissions are now closed.
1. Prologue

**So this is a random thought I had one day and I eventually decided to just go with it and see how it goes. I thought about doing an SYOC for some other stuff but after playing Overwatch I really wanted to try doing a story for this, I will definitely do more stories for Overwatch but for now I'm just gonna do this.**

 **XXX**

 _During the Omnic Crisis the international peacekeeping organization known as Overwatch came into existence. Filled with talented scientists, fighters and medics Overwatch was able to win the war and restore peace to the world. It was during this peace that the world leaders came to the conclusion that they needed to be prepared for any future crisis by gathering as many talented individuals as they could, no matter their age, nationality or gender. They would be trained to fight for peace and protect the future._

 **XXX**

 **So basically this is am SYOC in the Overwatch world that is based around Overwatch recruits in what I'd like to call the Overwatch Academy. I have posted the OC sheet below and it will be posted onto my profile page. Tell me what you guys/gals think and if you're interested be sure to submit a character.**

 **Overwatch OC sheet**

 **Name:**

 **Nickname: (Not Necessary but you can if you want)**

 **Age: (14-18)**

 **Gender:**

 **Race: (Human/Omnic/other)**

 **Nationality:**

 **Appearance:**

 **Background:**

 **Personality:**

 **Weapon(s):**

 **Abilities:**

 **Extra:**


	2. Heroes Aren't Born

**All right here is the first official chapter of my Overwatch SYOC, but before we start I just wanted to say something. I am happy to say that I've been getting lots of interesting characters submitted for this story, a lot more than I thought I would actually. That does give me the unfortunate issue of too many characters, and so I will be heavily reviewing the submitted characters selecting a few of them to be members of the main cast. I apologize if your character isn't in the main cast but rest assured they will be involved in the story some way or another. Now enough of me let's get started.**

 **XXX**

' _Almost there…'_

A young boy sat on a stool in front of a workbench that was covered in grease and scrap parts. His tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he slowly turned the screwdriver, all the while hoping that he'd finally been able to solve his problem. When the screw was finally in perfectly the boy slowly flipped the switch and watched his creation come to life. After waiting a few seconds a small smile made it's way across his face before growing much larger.

' _I did it. These last two years will actually mean something now!'_

So lost in his own thoughts, the boy failed to notice his invention swell up and hiss, when the pitch of the hissing got higher he quickly came to his senses. With wide eyes the boy tried to relieve the pressure as fast as possible, unfortunately nothing he did seemed to work and he was forced to dive away from the table as his creation exploded, sending scraps of metal all over his workshop. He stood up and quickly realized that one of his lenses was cracked.

' _Great, looks like I hit the deck too hard.'_

After patting himself down to check for any injuries the young inventor slowly made his way back to the table to check on his project. His shoulders shrank when he saw the shattered remains of his device. The frame was still there but all of the parts that he had spent countless hours calibrating and putting together were now scattered amongst his already mess work area.

' _But I thought… Where did I go wrong? All of my calculations should have been perfect; there's no way I made a mistake, right?'_

He took a shaky seat on his stool and stared at his worktable, all the while trying to figure out where he went wrongs. At the sound of someone running across the floor upstairs, throwing the door to his workshop open and running down the stairs, the young boy stood up to see a much older woman panting while her long black hair covered her face in strands. As soon as they made I contact she charged across the room and put both hands on his cheeks and started inspecting him from head to toe.

"Finlay are you alright? What was that loud noise?"

"I'm fine ma, just a little explosion."

" _Just_ a little _explosion_? You could have been hurt!"

"Ma it wasn't that bad I promise."

Sighing at his insistence of being unhurt, Finlay's mother removed her hands from his face and put them on her hips.

"You say that every time something happens down here and each time it only makes me worry more."

Finlay offered a casual shrug at her statement, she wasn't wrong after all. There was the occasional fire and the rare explosion, some were worse than others. Like the time he had permanently burned off one of his eyebrows trying to make the toaster go faster. In his defense he didn't know hooking it up to the car battery would result in almost burning down his basement workshop.

"I'm sorry ma, but this time I was so close, I just have to go back to the blueprints and see where I went wrong. Then all I have to do is rebuild it and it'll be ready-"

"I don't want to talk about this right now, besides dinners almost ready. Come help me set the table."

"I'll be up in a few minutes ma, I just have to-"

"I didn't say in a few minutes Finlay, come up now."

"But ma-"

"This is not an argument. Come up stairs."

"Fine…"

With a gentle smile his mother made her way back upstairs and with a deep sigh Finlay followed. He emerged from his dimly lit basement and squinted as the sun shone through every window in the living room.

"Well damn, he's alive after all!"

"Douglas, not now."

Finlay turned and saw his grandfather, sitting on the couch, laughing at his own joke while his grandmother glared at him and scolded him from her spot in the kitchen. His grandfather grunted before standing up and made his way over to Finlay. When he was close enough he leaned down and offered a smirk before patting Finlay's shoulder.

"If only women knew how to take a joke, eh Finlay?"

His grandfather once again chuckled at his own joke but stopped laughing when a wooden spoon collided with the side of his head. He rubbed the spot where he was hit before angrily pointing at his wife and yelling at her, something that did not go unanswered as Finlay's grandmother yelled back at him in as well. His mother simply stood there pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. There wasn't much you could do when the two of them got into a fight except stand back and wait for it to end, like a hurricane.

Eventually Finlay's grandfather threw up his hands in frustration and made his way back to the couch. With that out of the way Finlay walked into the kitchen and got the cutlery out of the pantry and started setting the table, before sitting next to his grandfather on the couch and watching the ending of an old game show. Eventually dinner was served and all four of them sat around the table silently eating with the occasional comment made here and there, it was comfortable but it wasn't enough to distract him from the earlier events of today.

He quickly finished his dinner and excused himself from the table before putting his dishes in the sink and making his way back downstairs. His mother had said something to him just before he closed the door but he didn't quite hear it and continued back down the stairs undeterred.

' _I have to find all of the parts, then I have to examine the blueprints again and see what I missed.'_

He was on his hands and knees for the better part of half an hour trying to find the pieces that went missing, if he didn't do it know then he'd never be able to find them. It was while he was trying to find the last few pieces that he heard the footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Sorry ma but I just need to do a few more things and I'll be done for the night I swear."

"I'm an old man Finlay, I'm not sure how you can confuse me with your mother."

He spun around and saw his grandfather standing at the bottom of the stairs curiously looking around the workshop.

"I remember making birdhouses down here, nothing fancy like you but the birds seemed to really like them."

"Hey grandpa, what's up?"

"Nothing just came to see what you're so obsessed with down here."

His grandfather walked close to the workbench and whistled appreciatively when he saw the remains of Finlay's invention.

"That's definitely not a birdhouse."

Giving a nod of approval his grandfather took a seat on Finlay's stool and glanced around the basement.

"I remember being down here for hours every day teaching your father how to use tools."

At the mention of Finlay's father his hand acted on impulse and drifted to the dog tags hanging around his neck.

"He had a gift for working with his hands you know. As long as he had the right tools he could fix anything he wanted."

"I know grandpa, you told me before."

His grandfather nodded his head and examined a wrench that he had picked off of a table.

"You're looking more and more like him each day."

He'd seen photos of his dad from when he was around his age so he knew his grandpa wasn't lying. His father had short red hair and green eyes just like he did. If you got rid of Finlay's glasses and gave him back his eyebrow then the resemblance would have been uncanny.

Without anything to say Finlay turned toward his worktable and tried to look busy so that his grandpa would leave. His plan backfired when his grandfather kept talking.

"Your mother worries about you buddy."

"She shouldn't, I'm fine."

"Maybe, but it's a mother's job to worry about her son. You should have seen your grandmother when your father went to war. She wouldn't put down those knitting needles of hers no matter what, always making something we didn't need. She made me way to many sweaters, I still haven't worn them all."

When Finlay didn't answer his grandpa sighed before putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Anyway my point is, your mother lost one man in her life. And now she feels like she's loosing you too, not in the same way but you're spending so much time down here that one day it's going to get you killed."

Finlay shrugged the hand off of his shoulder and went back to looking around the room for the last few parts.

"I know what I'm doing grandpa."

"No you don't you're seventeen, nobody knows what they're doing at your age."

"Well then I guess I'm special."

His grandfather sighed at his attitude and looked at an old scrap part covered in oil, not knowing what it was or what it did he slowly put it back down.

"I'm not going to sit here all day and tell you that what you're doing is wrong or that you need to stop whatever it is you're doing. I am going to tell you to be careful, I might sound like a broken record but if anything serious happens to you, your mother will never forgive herself."

With that his grandfather made his way back upstairs, when the door closed Finlay released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding. He loved his family but he knew that if he told them why he was doing this, they wouldn't understand.

He pulled the dog tags out from under his shirt and looked at the name engraved onto them.

 _O'Connor William_

He gripped them tight and after a moment of silence tucked them back into his shirt, he knew why he was doing this and that's all that mattered.

 **XXX**

He slowly opened his eyes and threw his arm onto the table to check his watch; in glowing numbers it showed that it was 9:04 A.M. He had fallen asleep while working, that wasn't uncommon he'd stayed up all night working on his project practically every day since he started. Since his mother worked as a nurse all day with rarely a day off, and his grandparents didn't live with them he could get away with skipping school.

He pulled his head off the table, peeled the oil rag off of his face and blinked a few times to clear up his vision. In front of him was the last few pieces he needed to completely reassemble his invention, but instead of going ahead and putting them back on he had paused to try and discover his problem. He'd looked over his blueprints thousands of times and still couldn't figure out the problem, so he had decided to look over his actual invention to find the issue.

' _I still don't see where I'm going wrong. Air gets sucked in, stored, and released when I pull the trigger.'_

He sat there for hours trying to figure out where he went wrong, when out of nowhere he slammed his hand against his forehead.

"I'm an idiot!"

With that Finlay immediately started looking through the spare parts in his workshop to try and find something that could help. After rummaging through a pile he triumphantly held a few small pieces up in the air and turned back toward his creation.

' _Of course that's what the issue was. Any excess air pressure is gonna be a problem, you idiot.'_

Time flew as Finlay added the new edition to his invention. The sound of drilling, welding and ratchets filled the air. It was difficult to find the right spot but after a few more tweaks he'd finally been able to create a release valve for his invention.

With that complete Finlay sat on his stool and stared at his creation. He knew that he had to turn it on to make sure he was right, but at the same time he didn't want to have his creation explode in his face again.

He thumbed the dog tags hanging around his neck and after a few moments of hesitation he gave himself a firm nod and flipped the switch. It hummed to life and he took a few steps back, waiting for another explosion. But it never came, it simply sat there humming, waiting to be used by its creator. After another few minutes of terse silence, and no explosion, Finlay allowed himself to smile and throw his fist in the air.

"Yes!"

He gave himself a pat on the back and a few more moments of excitement before taking a deep breath and sitting down. He stared at his invention and took it all in now that it was complete. Two large metal gauntlets with holes in the knuckles and two holes on both sides were flat on the table with a pair of metal boots beside them. The bottom of the boots had several holes and the back of each boots had one large one as well as two on each side. All four pieces had a thick hose with wire inside connected to them that lead to a small strange looking backpack with a glowing green light.

Without waiting for another second Finlay put on his backpack and strapped his boots on tight before doing the same with his gauntlets. He needed to test it right now, he ran upstairs and out the door leading to the backyard. It was dark outside which showed Finlay just how long he'd been in the basement.

Their backyard was fairly standard, it didn't have anything on it except for the old shed and a wooden fence. He swallowed a lump in his throat, put his left foot in front of the right, bent his knees and raised his right fist toward the shed but nothing happened.

' _C'mon, don't wimp out now.'_

He grit his teeth and pulled the trigger in his gauntlet and released it after three seconds. The effect was immediate, four blasts of air shot out of his hand and they would have thrown him off of his feet if not for his stance and the boots releasing their own burst of wind that counterbalanced the pressure. The blasts of wind from his gauntlet sailed across the yard and slammed into the front of the shed blowing four holes through the door.

"Whoa…"

His jaw hung half open while he simply stood there looking at the holes in the door. With a shake of his head he took the same stance as before and prepared to do the same thing again. He did that for hours on end changing the time he held down the trigger by one second each time, the longer he held the trigger the bigger the holes would be. If he held it for less time then the holes would either be smaller or they wouldn't make it to the shed.

He would have stood there for hours, doing the same thing over and over again if his stomach hadn't loudly growled to get his attention.

' _I guess I could use something to eat.'_

He breathed out and smiled to himself before making his way back inside and into the kitchen and removed his equipment. A quick glance at the clock on the stove showed him the time was 3:45 A.M, the whole day had been spent on his invention and he wouldn't have had it any other way. He pored himself a bowl of cereal, grabbed a glass of juice and made his way over to the couch and sat down. He grabbed the remote and flicked on the television, there wasn't anything too interesting on so he settled for some cartoons instead.

' _I never understood how bread could stay dry underwater, or why nobody cares that he has a shirt on but no pants.'_

When a commercial popped up in the middle of his show Finlay decided to turn off the T.V, he yawned and was about to go upstairs to bed when he heard a siren outside his house. It quickly passed only for another one to come by; he shot out of his seat, knocking his empty bowl to the floor and ran to the front door to look outside. He saw two fire trucks racing down his street before turning out of sight.

He ran to his basement workshop and pulled out a dusty container. Inside there was a grey ski mask, ski goggles, and a heavy jacket as well as snow pants. He had brought these down two years ago when he first started; he got it into his head that after he finished his invention he'd wear this and run around Boston acting like a hero. His mother still thinks he lost them on an overnight ski trip in Ontario that the school organized.

He grabbed the container and ran back upstairs. He put everything in the container on before putting his invention back on. He stood in front of a mirror and took a deep breath before running outside. He stood in the middle of the street and faced the same direction that the fire trucks had gone. With another deep breath Finlay crouched down and pointed his gauntlets toward the ground, this was another test. In theory the combined output from all four devices would launch him high into the air. He'd be able to cover more ground this way and hopefully it would give him vision of where the fire trucks were going.

' _What if I get there and it's false alarm? What if I can't help?'_

He shook his head to clear his mind of any doubts.

' _I won't know until I get there.'_

With a firm belief in his course of action Finlay pulled the trigger in his gauntlets and held it down for ten seconds before finally releasing it. The resulting burst of air was like he'd been launched from a catapult, it had thrown him high into the sky and well above the other houses on his street. With his arms flailing about and his legs trying to walk on air it was hard for Finlay to try and take in the sights but one thought did enter his mind.

' _How the hell do I land?'_

He probably should have thought of that before launching himself into the air but to be fair he was thinking of other things. The approaching ground forced him to make a decision; he got his limbs under control, bent his knees and pointed them toward the ground while pulling the triggers in his gauntlets. When it was close enough he released the triggers and used a blast of air that slowed his descent enough for him to land with only a slight pain in his knees.

"Well, that works I guess."

Finlay once again launched himself into the air but this time he was able to look around and get sight of flashing lights as well as a large apartment building on fire in the distance. With his destination in sight, the next time Finlay landed he positioned himself toward it and took off.

 **XXX**

The fire was much more intimidating up close than he had thought. He was crouched on a smaller building opposite to it, from his position he could see the firefighters running into the building while the police kept any civilians away from danger and the EMT's were treating anyone who needed aid. He could see people crying while they were getting patched up and thanking any the medics and anyone else in uniform.

He had come to see if he could help but from where he was it seemed like it was under control. He wasn't disappointed in the slightest though; to know that these people were safe was more than enough to make this trip worth it. Besides, he got to test out his invention once again.

Finlay smiled under his mask and turned around to launch himself back home when a loud explosion from across the street caused him to spin around. The top few floors had shot fire out of the windows spreading the fire to the neighboring buildings. The fire fighters immediately started spraying the new fire with water to try and stop it in its tracks. He also saw one of the firemen yelling into a walkie-talkie and not being happy with whatever was being said to him.

He looked back at the fire and saw that not one of the firefighters who had gone in had come out; he glanced back and forth between the people outside and the fire before coming to a decision.

' _I came to help. Not watch.'_

With that Finlay launched himself off of the roof and through a window of the burning building. He was immediately met with intense heat and the smell of smoke.

' _If anyone needs help they'd be on the top floor.'_

With that in mind Finlay made his way up the building, blowing away any obstacles that stopped his progress. He checked each floor as well as he could, calling for anyone who was trapped. He was on the floor just below the top one, being as careful as possible while walking across the weakened floor.

"Hello! Anyone here!"

There was no response but before making his way to the top he tried once more.

"Can anyone hear me?"

"…Help…"

It was strained and almost impossible to hear over the roaring fire but he definitely heard someone answer.

"Where are you?"

There was no response this time, however, instead of claiming it was his imagination he got to work trying to find the owner of the voice. Every door on the floor was open, which made checking them a lot less dangerous and he ran past each room while glancing inside to check for anyone who might be hurt.

"Hello! If you can hear me I'm here to help!"

There was still no response but after running past one room he saw a woman laying next to an overturned wheel chair. Without missing a beat Finlay ran over to the prone woman.

"Hey!"

She didn't answer and her eyes stayed closed, with no response Finlay threw the woman over his right shoulder and while looking for a way out he noticed a window overlooking the street where the emergency responders were.

' _It'll take too long to walk out. Guess I've got no choice.'_

He pointed his fist at the window and sent a blast of air toward it, blowing out the glass and making it safer for his passenger. He raced toward the window and jumped out, he looked toward the ground and saw people staring up at him as he fell, some were actually standing directly below him.

"Out of the way!"

People seemed to come to their senses and scrambled to make room for him. As soon as he hit the ground Finlay looked for an ambulance, as soon as he found one he walked directly toward it and handed the woman over to an EMT and wordlessly he started treating the woman. Finlay turned back toward the building and was about to go back in when his vision started to swim, he steadied himself as the adrenaline started to wear off. He started to fell pain in both his hands and feet; full wearing full metal on them did have its downside and the added effect of breathing in so much smoke left him running on fumes.

He tried to take a step but it felt like his foot missed the ground and he went tumbling forward, only to feel himself get stopped by a group of hands.

 **XXX**

When he opened his eyes he saw the clean white of a hospital with the sound of machines beeping being the first thing he heard. He pulled the oxygen tube out of his nose and sat up on his bed before feeling around for his glasses on the table next to him.

"Glad to see you're awake."

Finlay put his glasses on and turned toward the voice and saw a man leaning against the doorway. The man had a confident smile, a pristine black suit with a red tie and slicked back brown hair. He confidently made his way into the room and sat down near his bed.

"That was a pretty impressive demonstration kid."

"Uh…thanks."

"There are a lot of people asking about you. Everyone wants to know about the boy who jumped into a burning building, then jumped back out with someone on his shoulder." 

Finlay broke eye contact with the man and chose to look at his blistered hands instead.

"You don't have to look so scared Finlay, I'm only here to talk."

At the mention of his name Finlay's head snapped toward the suit wearing man and he felt his mouth open slightly.

"How do you-"

"Know your name? That's not exactly difficult when you work for the government."

The room entered a state of silence while Finlay tried to process what he was just told."

"Am I… am I in trouble?"

The man chuckled before scratching the back of his head.

"I don't see how you got that impression, I mean you saved somebodies life last night kid. There's not a person on this earth who's gonna punish you for doing that."

After hearing that Finlay released a tense breath that he'd been holding unconsciously.

"However-"

' _Uh-oh.'_

"-There is the problem of someone as young as you running around with those gloves. How exactly do they work anyway?"

"Uh, well, my gauntlets are sort of like a mini-air cannon. When I turn them on they suck in air, and when I pull the trigger inside it increases the rate of air intake and starts to pressurize it. When I release the trigger the air gets released through the ports in the knuckles, and when I do that the computer on my back sends a signal to my boots to take in air, pressurize it, and then release it the same time I do."

The man blinked a few times at the fast explanation before shaking his head with a smile.

"Wow, I barely managed to follow that. But from what I get that's pretty impressive for someone as young as you."

"Not really, it took me two years to realize that I needed to cycle the air while it's not pressurizing so that it doesn't explode by becoming too volatile."

After rambling about his gauntlets Finlay once again went quite and tried to flex his fingers but a quick jolt of pain stopped him from trying to do that again.

"Anyway, let me be clear on this kid. The government sent me here to give you a choice, and let me tell you that doesn't happen too often."

Finlay stopped looking at his hands and looked the agent dead in the eye. Seeing that he had the younger boys attention the man smiled and stood up.

"Basically, you have two choices. Give those gloves of yours over to the government."

Before giving Finlay his second option the suited man took a card out of his suit pocket and tossed it onto his lap.

"Or you can join the Overwatch Academy."

"The Overwatch what?"

"The Overwatch Academy, it's the next step in preparing the world for any possible future crisis by training the youth of today to fight for tomorrow. That's how the speech goes anyway. Every government on earth funds it, some more than others, but It's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. You get to keep your gloves and maybe one day you'll get to join Overwatch."

When Finlay simply sat there and stared at the card without saying a word, the agent simply stood up and made his way toward the door.

"Wait!"

At the teens call the agent turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm in."

 **XXX**

The car ride home was a little more than awkward. He was sitting next to the agent in his white sedan without any music. After agreeing to join the Overwatch Academy the agent had stepped outside to call someone before telling him that they'd be heading to his house to get any clothes or equipment he needed before going to the airport.

When they finally did reach his house he walked up to the front door and turned the knob to see his mother sitting on the couch watching the T.V with a worried look. At the sound of the door creaking open his mother looked up, saw him and ran over to give him a hug.

"Where were you? I checked the basement but you weren't there and then I saw the news and I heard them talk about this person who jumped out of a burning building and…why do you smell like smoke?"

In response Finlay broke eye contact and stared at his feet. His mother was able to put two and two together as her face fell and she took a step back. When she next spoke her voice was strained

"Finlay… where were you last night?"

"…I was at the fire."

His mother stumbled back and sat on the couch, she put her face into her hands and stayed quite.

"I saved someone's life mom."

She looked up and Finlay could see that tears had started to form in her eyes.

"I don't care about that Finlay, you could have gotten hurt. You could have died!"

"What's so bad about me risking my life to save someone?"

His mother stared at him in disbelief for a moment before coming back to her senses.

"…What?"

"Dad gave his life so that other people could live. So why should I get to sit here and twiddle my thumbs while there's still people who need help?"

"Your father gave his life so that you wouldn't have to!"

The sound of someone clearing their throat stopped the argument dead in its tracks. Both Finlay and his mother turned to face the agent standing in the doorway awkwardly smiling while pointing to his watch.

"We have to get going if we want to catch the plane kid."

"…Finlay what's he talking about?"

"I got asked to join the Overwatch Academy."

"No."

"…I already said yes."

"Finlay… please."

Finlay responded by wrapping his arms around his mom and squeezing her tight.

"I'll be alright."

After one last squeeze Finlay let go of his mother and walked upstairs to throw a few changes of clothes into his old school backpack. After that he ran to the basement and grabbed an old gym bag to throw some equipment and his gauntlet blueprints into.

After making sure that he had everything Finlay walked back up the stairs and saw his mother sitting on the couch with her face in her hands and quickly turned away. Before he left he glanced at a photo that was hanging on the wall near the front door. His mother was giving the camera a big smile while holding a six-month-old Finlay in one arm. His father, an older and much more muscular version of Finlay, had one arm around her shoulder. What made the photo so special though was the champion belt around his waist. One eye was closed and bruised while he offered the camera a cheeky grin while his other fist was in the air. They had taken the photo almost immediately after he had won the belt, his always father said that it was the second greatest moment of his life, since his wedding and Finlay's birth were tied for first.

Finlay gave the photo a smile and rubbed his dog tag before making his way outside and into the agent's car.

 **XXX**

 **All right, wow. That is literally the longest chapter I've ever done, like ever. But I really liked writing this and I'm super excited to write more for this in the future. Now on to a few more things, I said this at the beginning of the chapter but I'm gonna say it again. I have gotten so many great OC's but I'm only going to be able to use a few as the main cast. I'm going to try to use all of the characters submitted, that's a promise. Also the submission will be closing soon since I can't handle too many more characters. I've gotten way more than I thought I would and I'm really happy about that but I do need to have a limit. Finally if you submit a character as a guest then I will overlook them. If I can't speak with you about your character and get details then I won't take them. That's it for now tell me what you guys thought and let me know where I can do better. Later.**


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